In one of the internal messages from 2015, a Facebook employee discussed how an update to the social media app would trigger permissions boxes that would require them to opt in to "continuously upload your SMS (text) and call log history to Facebook".

They said: "This is a pretty high-risk thing to do from a PR perspective but it appears that the growth team will charge ahead and do it."

In another email a second employee said the team had thought of a way to collect the data from Android phones without "subjecting them" to asking for permission.

They said: "The growth team is now exploring a path where we only request Read Call Log permission, and hold off on requesting any other permissions for now."

The media committee got the data from app developer Six4Three, which acquired the information dating back to 2013.

They are suing Facebook over changes to the social media firm's policies which led to it shutting down the app.